Friday Feedback: I saw a great sign downtown today in the Immigration Reform March, “Jose didn’t take your job — Goldman-Sachs did.” It is time that those who are having a hard time began to show the courage to blame the ones who have really trampled on them: Goldman-Sachs, Lehman Brothers, Bank of America, Chase, Exxon, BP, and the filthy rich who didn’t get that way by doing the work
Goldman Sucks
April 30, 2010 By
Tom Degan: It’s highly unlikely that any serious reform is going to be put forward until the Republican presence on Capital Hill has been significantly diluted if not eradicated. I do not believe that it is a given that they are going to gain major ground come Election Day. In fact there is every reason to believe that they will only continue to self-destruct between now and then. They can’t win without the section of the electorate who describe themselves as “moderate”. The moderates are taking a good look at the train wreck that is the modern GOP and by all accounts they’re becoming more and more disgusted by what they see.
Hate Crimes Legislation’s Torturous Path
April 30, 2010 By
Carl Matthes: As you may remember, 21 year-old Matthew was pistol-whipped, bludgeoned and lashed to a fence post, just off an isolated rural road, during one of Wyoming’s cold, lonely October nights. He was left for dead by his killers. Eighteen hours later Matthew was discovered still alive, but in a coma. “I mistook him for a scarecrow,” said 18 year-old Aaron Kreifels. Five days later he died. In 1998 America, Matthew was just one of 33 anti-gay murders.
Mr. Cairns Goes to Westminster? UK Election Writ Small, Retail & Local
April 30, 2010 By
Denis Campbell: General Election “speed-dating” best characterises the 31-day sprint to the UK’s 06 May finish line. Forget the hoopla surrounding 1st ever televised leadership debates, SPIN rooms, 3D graphic holograms and breathless pundits. All 650 UK House of Commons seats serving 60 million people (a 92,000:1 ratio) are up for grabs (compared to 435 US House seats serving 330 million or 760,000:1). If you think all US politics is retail and local, to borrow from the song, “you ain’t seen nuttin’ yet.”
A Letter to Tea Partiers and Your Anti-Racist Moment
April 30, 2010 By
John Delloro: Lets be honest about your vision of society and admit that you are more comfortable with a white nation so that we can have a real discussion. Just keep in mind these US Census Bureau projections: In 20 years, we will witness the last largest population of white people to retire in the nation and white deaths will outpace white births. In one generation, the nation will be majority people of color. In other words, it will be largely communities of color who will make decisions about your retirement security.
Babies Who Make You Think
April 30, 2010 By
Charley James and Lulu Demaine: Thomas Balmès’ film makes a statement about the many possible paths from birth to a happy first birthday, and they have nothing to do with modern medicine – or the lack of it – or the circumstances in which a child is born.
ROTC Marching Back onto Harvard’s Campus
April 29, 2010 By
Rev. Irene Monroe: In February, when the nation’s top two Defense officials — Defense Secretary Robert Gates and Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff — advocated for a repeal of the 1993 “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell (DADT)” policy, universities like Brown, Columbia, and Harvard, to name a few, allowed ROTC to march its way back on campus.
Lenny’s House
April 29, 2010 By
Tom Degan: I imagine that it must not have been easy being Lenny Bruce. He was a man who saw the world as it really is – minus the rose-colored lenses that were the fashion rage during the age of Eisenhower and the New Frontier. “People should be taught what is”, he told us, “not what should be”. There had never been a comedian like him before. His humor was real. It could even be bleak. But he was always – to the very end – screamingly funny. That his was a troubled soul there can be no argument. Newsweek once described him as a “self-destructive genius of a dirty time.”
Honorees Revolutionize Progressive Communications
April 29, 2010 By
Wendy Block: Valley Democrats United’s (VDU’s) 2010 Badge of Courage honorees knew corporate media would respect progressive voices about the same time Rush Limbaugh invited Amy Goodman to guest host his radio show. So documentarian extraordinaire Robert Greenwald, and citizen journalists for the world Sharon Kyle and Dick Price, crashed the international debate.
Robert Reich’s Ignored Warning on Chief Justice John Roberts
April 29, 2010 By
Robert Reich: Viewed as a whole, the record suggests that Roberts is likely to place a higher value on property than on community, and is likely to view the Commerce Clause as hobbling the effective reach of the federal law and regulation. As such, John Roberts may have more in common with his namesake before Justice Roberts switched sides in 1937 than after that historic switch.
Love Letter to Arizona: Your Appointed Governor Is a Coward
April 28, 2010 By
Tina Dupuy: In fact, everything about SB 1070, Arizona’s new ruthless immigration law signed last week seems refried. It’s the same bill Governor Janet Napolitano vetoed twice. It’s a three-peat of a bad idea. And it’s a political cliché: when the economy is struggling, scapegoat “illegals.” In 1994 California’s then-Governor Pete Wilson knew the drill: His notorious re-election commercials showed immigrants running over the border like invading pathogens and he got to appear responsive to voters’ fears.
Obama’s New Path to Mideast Peace?
April 28, 2010 By
David Love: And as far as the U.S. is concerned, a laissez-faire policy of shoulder shrugging has not worked in the Mideast, and neither has the appearance of siding with one party over another. Obama realizes that if there is any hope for stability in the region, he must deal with the Israel-Palestine conflict. Hotheads and peddlers of extremism have a vested interest in the status quo, and would like nothing more than to derail any attempts to transform today’s sad state of affairs.
May 1st: People Power: Build Progressive Alternative to the Tea Parties
April 28, 2010 By
Lydia Howell: It’s high time for progressives to escalate our own mass movement, to make it loud enough it cannot be ignored. The immigrant rights movement’s recent May Day marches have gotten far more media attention than any peace rallies since the 2003 invasion of Iraq. The labor movement needs a jump-start. It’s crucial to have a broad, united progressive counter to the reactionary, racist Tea Parties.
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Who’s Who In Black Los Angeles: Who Really Wants To Know and What Is This Really About?
Anthony Asadullah Samad: Guess who discovered Who’s Who In Black Los Angeles after two years? Before you ask, I really wanted to feature a Los Angeles Times editor in Who’s Who in Black Los Angeles. Really. The problem is, there is not a single African American among those who make coverage decisions for the paper. In hindsight, it probably was a mistake not to include the one black man on the paper’s full-time Metro reporting staff. That brother deserves a special award for what I imagine he goes through everyday. Well, maybe next year.